The iPhone 8 Is Actually Relatively Cheap In Australia

The new iPhone 8 may not be a massive upgrade in raw power or design from the iPhone 7, but there's definitely a silver lining: it's not actually that expensive in Australia -- compared to the rest of the world, at least.

iPhone 8 prices versus GDP per capita (in US dollars). Image: Prisync

In Australia, we generally feel like we get a raw deal on the prices of new tech. Compared to the US's $US699 RRP -- which translates into $872 in Australian dollars, albeit excluding all US sales taxes -- we do, paying Apple a total of $1079 for the iPhone 8. The iPhone is cheapest in outright American dollars from the US compared to anywhere in the world, although Japan and Hong Kong are close.

iPhone 8 prices per country (in US dollars). Image: Prisync

According to price tracker Prisync, the average price paid for an iPhone 8 worldwide is $US918, or $1145 in Australian dollars -- so our RRP is lower than more than half the countries tracked by Prisync. Australia also fares well, although not as well as the US or Luxembourg or Switzerland, when it comes to the price of the iPhone versus the worldwide GDP per capita of each company -- Australia's iPhones cost 1.73 per cent of GDP per capita (approx $US50K), where the US's $US699 RRP is 1.22 per cent per capita (approx $US57.5K) and Luxembourg pulls ahead with 0.9 per cent per capita (approx $US103K).

Interestingly, Australia is the country in which you have to work the least hours to afford an iPhone 8 from Apple. It takes 62 hours of work at Australia's gross minimum wage to afford the iPhone 8, which is nothing compared to the 1169 hours of Russia or the 1650 hours of Mexico. [Prisync]